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1 year ago
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Denmark has created a new special police unit called the Politiets Online Patrulje (Police Online Patrol) to monitor online spaces. These special officers are tasked to monitor online social spaces such as Steam, Discord, and Twitch, in addition to playing popular multiplayer titles including CS:GO, Fortnite, and Minecraft. The unit's presence was brought to light on Reddit, where a user shared images of the unit, fully attired in Danish Police uniform, playing and streaming popular video games.
Danish Police Utilize Video Games to Monitor Online Spaces
According to the official Danish Police website, “Police will patrol social media, where police can engage in dialogue with children and young people in particular, prevent inappropriate behavior and crime, and intervene in the event of offenses.”
The online patrol squad also maintains its presence on several social media platforms, which includes a Twitch handle where its members can be spotted livestreaming their online games. The unit also maintains a TikTok handle, where it shows off some of its activities and stream highlights to its 100K subscribers, which has fetched over 750K likes so far.
Denmark's Police Online Patrol
/u/PROXeR__OiShi
The Danish police have always been ardent fans of video games and esports culture. In 2020, the department posted a tweet congratulating Heroic for its performance in the ESL One: Cologne 2020 Europe - Finals. During the pandemic-induced lockdowns the same year, the Danish police department encouraged its citizens to play online games like CS:GO and League of Legends over Discord to socialize instead of venturing outside. The Danish police even shared a set of guidelines aimed at preventing scams within online games such as CS:GO.
In recent years, law enforcement agencies around the world have been exploring new ways to engage with younger generations who are digitally active and gaming seems to be a go-to domain. In the Netherlands, for example, community police have launched initiatives like ‘Gaming with the Police’ to keep in touch with youth.
However, it seems that the presence of law enforcement agencies in virtual worlds is not limited to just building community relationships. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013, revealed that intelligence agencies from the United States and the United Kingdom actually embedded themselves in games like World of Warcraft and Xbox Live chat to infiltrate virtual terrorist meet-ups.
